Deborah Dwork, director of the university's Center for Holocaust Studies, praised Kline for assembling the collection.

"Without his efforts, many of these items might have been lost forever," she said. "Now, it is time to make them accessible to scholars committed to studying the Holocaust."

The collection includes registers of Jewish survivors of World War II, German foreign policy documents, Allied military plans, artwork illustrating anti-Semitism and photographs taken during the liberation of Nazi concentration camps.

The recently established Holocaust studies center will begin offering a doctoral degree in Holocaust history this year.